Commentary

Down and Out

FOB-Down and OutDon't be surprised to see homemakers and female golfers huddled en masse at your local newsstand, mourning the latest glossy casualties. As the publishing industry grapples with an economic recession and sinking ad pages (down 3.1 percent during the first half of this year compared to 2007,per the Publishers Information Bureau), it's not just big-name mags that are shaking in their boots, it's the niche pubs, too. This year saw the end of Quick & Simple and Golf for Women. You can also kiss your bimonthly dose of American Jewish Life goodbye, dear readers. And The New York Sun - something like the Pabst Blue Ribbon of city dailies with its resurrected '50s logo - breathed its last on Sept. 30, in the wake of reporting about the week Wall Street itself was taken off life support. In the case of Hearst's Quick & Simple, which closed in July despite ad pages up 53.1 percent earlier this year, the company said "significantly escalating paper costs" were a touch prohibitive in cranking out an affordable weekly. But behold the power of the Internet - Wal-Mart moms can still find no-bake cheesecake recipes on quickandsimple.com. And aficionados of male genitalia can just surf on over to playgirltv.com (or most of the Internet, really) after Playgirl takes its last breathy sigh in its January/February 2009 issue.
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